Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Squirmy Wormy

How difficult is it to change a little boy's diaper when he has just discovered that he can MOVE and doesn't ever want to hold still for a second?
(Disclaimer: The following video contains brief infant nudity. Parents are strongly cautioned.)
Did any of my baby books have a section on diapering the world's wiggliest baby? I don't think so. And if you think that's bad, you should see me squealing and holding him down when he has a poopy diaper and he's trying to roll around and run away from me. He's such a little rascal. Oh, and he also discovered the cat food yesterday. By the time I got to him, he had two fistfuls (it only takes him about a millisecond to get a fistful of something he's not supposed to have) and was already trying to get some of it into his mouth. He's spending about 75% of the time scooting around on his back, and about 25% of the time crawling. It's funny when he crawls because he slaps the ground with his hands and his legs just kind of slither along. He's not holding himself up off the ground on his knees yet, but he is moving forward while on his belly so it's progress. He also continues to scream in delight at the cat every single time he sees her even though I am continually explaining to him that she lives here and that it's not a novelty every time we happen to spot her.
And yet, even though he's starting to become louder and messier and harder to keep track of, I'm so, so, SO glad that he's at this age. Every time I feel the urge to complain that I'm completely exhausted (do you know how HEAVY he gets??) and that he's driving me nuts, I just think about when he was a newborn and I remember that things could be so much harder. At least now, I can play with him and take him to the park. He can swing with me and sit up tall in his stroller and smile at me. He sleeps for hours at a time, if not all night. Yes, some things are harder now, such as feeding him... he wants to hold his own spoon in one hand and stick his other hand in the baby jar and then smear the food all around until I can barely see him under all the layers of pureed food.
That wasn't in the baby books either. But overall, things are a zillion times better now that he's getting bigger. Just in a very squirmy wormy sort of way.
--KC

You may not believe me, but it gets easier with each one. You figure stuff out, stress less, realize what's important and what's not. I'm STILL learning of course, but I've made a lot of changes over the years.